ShareOscar Bettison
Oscar Bettison, Composition
BMus (Hons.), Royal College of Music; MMus (Distinction), Guildhall School of Music and Drama; MM, Royal Conservatorium of The Hague; MFA, Princeton University; Ph.D, Princeton University.
Oscar Bettison was born in the UK. After studying with Simon Bainbridge and Robert Saxton in London, he attended the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague, Netherlands, where he studied with Louis Andriessen and Martijn Padding. He holds a Ph.D from Princeton University where his advisor was Steve Mackey. He was was a fellow at the Tanglewood (2001) and Aspen (2007) music festivals and was selected to be a participant in Luca Francesconi's Earlab 2008 in Norway and Italy in the summer of 2008.
He is the recipient of the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music Pianist/Composer Commissioning Project (2009), a Jerwood Foundation Award (1998), the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize (1997), and the first BBC Young Composer of the Year Prize (1993). He was a Naumberg fellow at Princeton University from 2003-2007.
He has received commissions from: the Bang On A Can All-Stars, the BBC, Ensemble Klang, Hellerau (Dresden), the London Sinfonietta, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, MusikFabrik, the New London Children's Choir, Orkest De Ereprijs, the Oxford Contemporary Music Festival and the Roundhouse (London).
In addition to having works premiered on three continents (Europe, North America and Australia), his work has received press coverage in the UK, the US, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Australia and has been featured on British Radio, BBC Television, Australian Radio, Brazilian Radio, Dutch Radio, and New York Public Radio, as well as being profiled in The Times (London).
Recordings include the full-length album O Death with Ensemble Klang and B&E (with aggravated assault) recorded by Newspeak on New Amsterdam Records.
Upcoming projects include a new work for the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, co-commissioned by the German contemporary music ensemble MusikFabrik, the world-premiere of which will take place in Los Angeles in April 2012 conducted by John Adams, with the European premiere to follow.
